ConnHuskBask
Shut Em Down!
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@Gurleyman Great post. I agree with what you're saying and I think so do people on the other side of the fence.
Traci Carter (Committed to Marquette)
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tzznandrew said:
Fair point. I shouldn't have used Beverly as an example. But we didn't get a wing behind Rip until Doug Wrenn (which is how Freeman ended up there). Guard-wise, we only got Darius Smith in a year after Kemba (in the spring). You bring a stud in who isn't a sure one and done and it can be tough to recruit right behind him at the same position. What happened at Kentucky this year was a case of guys coming back who weren't expected to.
It isn't a universal rule, of course - there can be exceptions. Boat came in a year after Bazz and before it was clear Kemba was going to blow up into a lottery pick, so he took a bit of a chance. Glad he did because when he was out with NCAA crap we legitimately only had a walk on backing up Bazz and Lamb at the guards. (Given that Kemba was mostly done with his degree, though, it is quite possible Boat assumed he would be gone). We had problems in 2006 with guard play because we got Williams and Price in back to back classes to play the 1 and 2, and no other guards wanted to be a part of that logjam (other than the flyer we took on Kellogg). Austrie was a spring signing after it was clear AJ was going to have a hard time coming back. Garrison was a desperation signing after suspensions.
In the case of Larrier and Mack, since that's an obvious example, VCUs system helped since they basically play one big, two guards and two wings and press all over the court. It's easy to sell that they'll be on the court a lot together. We would probably have a much better chance of selling minutes to Mack now, I think (now that he could have seen a lot of Hamilton at the 4 and our lack of shooting on the wing), but the signing period is when it is.
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Marquette fan weighing in as far as Carter goes.
FWIW, most of us were worried about UConn and hoped for a commitment on the visit. Pretty sure the staff got that commitment on the visit but allowed the player to get back home before announcing it publicly. Wojo is a hell of a recruiter, definitely better than Buzz Williams. Buzz used to throw out 20-30 offers to the kids he wanted and then hoped they would show interest. Sometimes we got lucky, but usually we ended up with the top-100 kids that no one else wanted.
Wojo seems to target one guy at a time and make them his only priority. For Henry Ellenson, he connected with his father, John (who played at Marquette in the 80s), secured a commitment from his AAU teammate Nick Noskowiak (had been committed under Buzz, since decommitted), and got Henry's brother Wally to transfer to Marquette from Minnesota (Wally was not here pre-Wojo, as someone said in this thread). He did everything he could to secure a McDonald's All-American quickly. Lots of work, but he put everything in his favor to get Henry.
With Carter, there seemed to be little contact until February. Playing time was definitely a major factor. Our one returning PG has been playing more like a 2/3 this year, and most expect that to continue, so right now Carter is the only true PG on our roster for 2015-16. It also helped a lot that Wojo was a HS All-American PG and played high-major basketball. In addition, his staff includes two All-American guards, Chris Carrawell & Brett Nelson, as well as Marquette alum Travis Diener who played 5 years in the NBA before turning down NBA contracts to play overseas (more money and married a ridicuously hot Italian girl). We have a very guard-centric coaching staff.
Marquette does have all the other perks, the updated facilities, large dedicated fanbase, but another thing that helped is we play in a NBA arena and have a very close relationship with the Milwaukee Bucks. Jabari Parker used to babysit Wojo's kids at Duke and I would bet has met every Marquette recruit that stepped on campus in the past year. Wojo's work with Team USA (through Coach K) also gives him a lot of connections -- just so happened that when Carter was in town, so were the Washington Wizards. Probably not coincidence that Carter got to hang out with his uncle, Rasual Butler, and his uncle's teammate, John Wall. Wall has been in Team USA camps that Wojo helped run.
I know we're just a small catholic school in the Midwest, but right now Wojo can sell his staff, all the players he helped send to the NBA, learning from Coach K, playing time, a new NBA arena being built in 2017, while also being able to push the underdog mentality since Buzz Williams sort of drove our program off a cliff before he bolted for Va Tech.
One more thing, though...I do think the American hinders you guys. Almost all the recruits we've landed have praised the Big East, how they love playing in a basketball conference, how well the league is doing. Not having football is not hurting recruiting at all. And when the worst teams you play are DePaul and Seton Hall, well that's still a massive step up from Tulane, ECU, USF, etc. I think everyone would love to have UConn back in the league, but no one wants the headache of football. As great as the old Big East was, it was pretty much chaos even before we joined the league, and those last few years felt like standing on a fault line. So if you guys ever want to ditch your football program, I have a feeling quite a few people could see a 12-team league with east and west divisions working out...maybe Dayton or Wichita State come along with you?
Either way, best of luck. While I hated seeing 'Nova lose last year, I had picked UConn deep in the tourney and it felt like the good old days cheering for Shabazz once all the Big East teams were out.
FWIW, most of us were worried about UConn and hoped for a commitment on the visit. Pretty sure the staff got that commitment on the visit but allowed the player to get back home before announcing it publicly. Wojo is a hell of a recruiter, definitely better than Buzz Williams. Buzz used to throw out 20-30 offers to the kids he wanted and then hoped they would show interest. Sometimes we got lucky, but usually we ended up with the top-100 kids that no one else wanted.
Wojo seems to target one guy at a time and make them his only priority. For Henry Ellenson, he connected with his father, John (who played at Marquette in the 80s), secured a commitment from his AAU teammate Nick Noskowiak (had been committed under Buzz, since decommitted), and got Henry's brother Wally to transfer to Marquette from Minnesota (Wally was not here pre-Wojo, as someone said in this thread). He did everything he could to secure a McDonald's All-American quickly. Lots of work, but he put everything in his favor to get Henry.
With Carter, there seemed to be little contact until February. Playing time was definitely a major factor. Our one returning PG has been playing more like a 2/3 this year, and most expect that to continue, so right now Carter is the only true PG on our roster for 2015-16. It also helped a lot that Wojo was a HS All-American PG and played high-major basketball. In addition, his staff includes two All-American guards, Chris Carrawell & Brett Nelson, as well as Marquette alum Travis Diener who played 5 years in the NBA before turning down NBA contracts to play overseas (more money and married a ridicuously hot Italian girl). We have a very guard-centric coaching staff.
Marquette does have all the other perks, the updated facilities, large dedicated fanbase, but another thing that helped is we play in a NBA arena and have a very close relationship with the Milwaukee Bucks. Jabari Parker used to babysit Wojo's kids at Duke and I would bet has met every Marquette recruit that stepped on campus in the past year. Wojo's work with Team USA (through Coach K) also gives him a lot of connections -- just so happened that when Carter was in town, so were the Washington Wizards. Probably not coincidence that Carter got to hang out with his uncle, Rasual Butler, and his uncle's teammate, John Wall. Wall has been in Team USA camps that Wojo helped run.
I know we're just a small catholic school in the Midwest, but right now Wojo can sell his staff, all the players he helped send to the NBA, learning from Coach K, playing time, a new NBA arena being built in 2017, while also being able to push the underdog mentality since Buzz Williams sort of drove our program off a cliff before he bolted for Va Tech.
One more thing, though...I do think the American hinders you guys. Almost all the recruits we've landed have praised the Big East, how they love playing in a basketball conference, how well the league is doing. Not having football is not hurting recruiting at all. And when the worst teams you play are DePaul and Seton Hall, well that's still a massive step up from Tulane, ECU, USF, etc. I think everyone would love to have UConn back in the league, but no one wants the headache of football. As great as the old Big East was, it was pretty much chaos even before we joined the league, and those last few years felt like standing on a fault line. So if you guys ever want to ditch your football program, I have a feeling quite a few people could see a 12-team league with east and west divisions working out...maybe Dayton or Wichita State come along with you?
Either way, best of luck. While I hated seeing 'Nova lose last year, I had picked UConn deep in the tourney and it felt like the good old days cheering for Shabazz once all the Big East teams were out.
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Ugh, I hate when I like fans from other teams.
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Seems like KO and staff have the same approach......
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I'm hoping that Calhoun is still pretty close to the team and maybe he can impart some wisdom on young KO. He can't be happy with the way recruiting is going so I hope JC is seriously in on helping him turn the corner and maybe get a few solid recruits.
Maybe someone on the staff (Ricky or Kevin) needs to be the guy to challenge KO and say hey, why are we offering these 8 kids we don't know a ton about other than they are producing at the highschool AAU level? Let's focus all our attention on these specific 10 guys who have something that we think other teams are under-valuing, like say the length of Jeremy Lamb or Brimah or Thabeet. Sounds like someone has to change the method or mindset on recruiting in general.
Maybe someone on the staff (Ricky or Kevin) needs to be the guy to challenge KO and say hey, why are we offering these 8 kids we don't know a ton about other than they are producing at the highschool AAU level? Let's focus all our attention on these specific 10 guys who have something that we think other teams are under-valuing, like say the length of Jeremy Lamb or Brimah or Thabeet. Sounds like someone has to change the method or mindset on recruiting in general.
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That just killed us. Buzz was very popular here, but he's pretty poor at identifying high school talent. Every year we would hear how we were on the list with half the guys that would be All-Americans, then didn't land any of them. Instead, we got guys like Jamail Jones and Erik Williams that played 2 years of high-major ball before transferring to Westeastern Tech A&M. Every year, there are guys in the 50-100 range that have interest from schools like Duke, UNC, or Kansas and end up turning out pretty good. Then there are guys in the 50-100 range that get interest from Texas Tech, Clemson, or Rutgers and end up sucking and transferring. Guess which ones Buzz got...
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And I totally get this...thankfully, the only fans from other teams that show up on our boards are usually Dayton or Wisconsin backers, and they are pretty much all crazy psychos that think their school can do no wrong. (Please find a way to get Diamond Stone qualified for college and take him from Wisconsin...would make us very happy)
At Marquette, we know better. You can't go 38 years without a title unless you're doing at least a couple things wrong...
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He's not going to college; he's going to Maryland.
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Anywhere but Wisconsin. Not sure his recruitment is entirely on the up-and-up. His AAU is an Under Armour program, just like Maryland, but there's a lot of talk about him having difficulty passing the SAT and in the middle of his recruitment, after eliminating Marquette, he called Wojo and asked if he could come to Marquette. That we didn't pursue tells me there might be some red flags...why else would our coach not field calls from a 5-star center in our back yard?
Wouldn't surprise me if he went to Europe or China for a year instead.
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